Young
by PrioritiesSorted
Summary: Remus reflects on happier times, filled with James, Peter, and Sirius. Oh, and quite a lot of Firewhisky.


_**A/N - So this was inspired in equal measure by my drunken sister (who was the inspiration for Prongs) and the song "We Are Young" by FUN. I'm not entirely sure how a little bit of angst crept in, but that's just me I guess. **_

_**Disclaimer: J K owns the dolls, she just lets us play with them :)**_

It was always the Marauders left in the Common Room after one of James's famous post-Quidditch booze-ups. Peter had fallen asleep on Remus's shoulder, and James and Sirius were lying on the floor in what would only be described as a heap.

"Get _off_, Padfoot." James mumbled, shoving a giggling Sirius off him with a grunt.

"But you're so comfy, Prongs." Sirius moaned, turning over onto his back to stare at the ceiling, hands behind his head.

"The floor's comfy, too." James informed him, "Underrated, really."

"You're just used to it, Prongs." Remus interjected. Admittedly, he was not entirely sober, but he was certainly clearer sighted than his friends. "After all, you seem to end up there every time you ask Lily out."

It took James only a little longer than Sirius (who proceeded to laugh hysterically) to process this information. Eventually, an intensely offended expression began to spread over James's face. He pouted for a second before a mischievous grin lit up his features. He launched himself across the room and attached himself to Remus's legs, tugging hard enough to dislodge Peter, who woke with a start.

"I- what- Prongs what are you doing?" he spluttered, as James grappled with Remus – a fight that, under normal circumstances, would have been over in a flash. However, the copious amounts of alcohol in James's system made it much easier for Remus to squirm out of his grip and maintain his place on the sofa.

"Trying to get Moony on the floor. He doesn't appreciate how good it is." James grunted, still grappling with Remus's legs.

"I think you'll find he does." Sirius smirked, who had recovered from his fit of laughter and was now simply lying back observing the struggle. "I made very sure of that after we won against Ravenclaw at the end of last year."

"I did not need to know that." Peter muttered into the cushions his head was now resting on.

"I quite agree, Wormtail." James cried, "In fact, I feel a bit ill."

Remus blushed profusely as James changed tactics and grabbed his arm, trying desperately to pull him down onto the floor, where Sirius was still grinning inanely.

"D'you think that that might be more to do with how much Firewhisky you have imbibed in the past few hours than the exuberant homosexuality of your best friends?" Remus pointed out, attempting in vain to retain some shred of his dignity as James continued his attack.

"You just enjoy using big words when I'm drunk, don't you Moony?" James complained, "Plus, it really isn't fair on me trying to catch you when you're spinning like that."

Remus let out a laugh as James collapsed, exhausted, on the floor.

"I think it's time you went to bed." Remus suggested, getting up off the sofa and brushing himself down before extending a hand to help his inebriated friend off the floor.

James, however, was having none of it. Remus supposed he should have known better: James was notorious for insisting that he could do everything by himself, especially when he had been in the company of a bottle of Ogden's Finest.

"Please, Moony. I think I can get to the dormitory by myself." He said, heaving himself onto all fours and proceeding to crawl towards the steps. Remus made to go after him, but Sirius insisted,

"No. Let him carry on. I want to see what happens when he tries to climb the stairs."

Before he'd even reached the stairs, however, James had toppled forward onto his face, and the other three Marauders had descended into peals of laughter.

"Shut up." James mumbled, hoisting himself back up onto all fours. "Who was I to know that trying to scratch my nose with both hands wasn't a good idea?"

"I dunno, Prongs." Remus replied seriously, "Maybe one of the youngest known Animagi in wizarding history?"

"Only now I think you're closer to the Giant Squid than a mighty stag." Peter observed, and Sirius cackled.

"Very true, Pete." Remus chuckled, "Hey Prongs, maybe now Lily'll go out with you!"

"Oh bite me, Moony." James grumbled, and Remus raised one eyebrow at him.

"You sure about that, Prongs?" he asked with a wry grin, "I don't think you'd like it if I did."

James muttered something that sounded an awful lot like "Bloody werewolf" but Remus couldn't be sure, since James had fallen on his face again.

"You can bite me if you like." Sirius suggested from his position on the floor, and Peter groaned.

"That's it. I'm going to bed, you two can be… whatever… down here without us. C'mon Prongs."

Peter eventually succeeded in pulling a protesting James to his feet and Remus and Sirius watched with amusement as the pair of them attempted to ascend the stairs.

When Sirius extended his hand to pull Remus to the floor beside him, he did not resist.

"What are the chances we find them asleep on top of each other in the morning?" Sirius asked softly, and Remus smiled.

"Almost certain."

Sirius nodded his agreement as he pulled Remus closer to him.

"This was a good night." Sirius sighed contentedly as he rested his head on Remus's chest.

"Yeah. It was." Remus replied absently, trying as hard as he could to cling to the buzz that James's antics had induced, but that was quickly ebbing away.

"What is it, Moony?" Sirius moaned, his drunkenness having abated enough to allow him his usual perceptiveness where Remus's melancholy was concerned.

"Nothing, really." Remus tried to reassure him, but Sirius was not going to let him off that easily.

"Remus," he said, propping himself up on one elbow to look down at his lover, "what is it?"

"Really, Sirius, it's nothing. Just me being pessimistic and thinking that we can't always be this young. I mean, one day very soon we're going to leave Hogwarts and get jobs and have families and things. One day we'll be old enough to care what people think, and if they'll accept us. It won't always be this simple, but I want it to be." He explained, and to his surprise, Sirius only smiled.

"I hate to break it to you, Moony, but you've always been a bit old. That's why you have me."

He bent his head and placed a surprisingly tender kiss on Remus's lips. Remus smiled into it and ran the pad of his thumb softly across Sirius's jaw. Sirius rested his head on Remus's chest again and Remus smiled, listening to Sirius's breathing become more regular as he fell asleep. Maybe James had been right about the floor, Remus thought as his eyelids started to droop. In that moment of hazy happiness there wasn't room in Remus's mind to worry about the future, and when he looked back, Remus was glad.

It was less than a year later that the trouble started, and only two years after that that everything fell apart. Those early days full of lazy passion seemed like an ancient myth as Remus looked into Sirius's gaunt and wasted face in the Shrieking Shack. The pair of them were greyer than they should have been at thirty-five; the years had been far from kind.

As they watched Lily and James's son grow into a man far before his time, Remus and Sirius could not help but be absolutely and entirely thankful for their youths. Perhaps they had not been perfect, perhaps they were far from it, but once Remus and Sirius had been young men. When Remus looked into the thirteen year old Harry's bright green eyes for the first time, he saw not a child, but a man well on the way to being old.

So as Remus watched that last reminder of his youth disappear forever behind the veil, it was not only grief that ripped through Remus's heart. Though he could almost see the pain settle on Harry's shoulders, adding another ten years to that already ancient boy, he knew that Sirius was never meant to be an old man. The Sirius who came back from Azkaban was not the Sirius who had kissed him on the floor of the Gryffindor Common Room, and neither of them could deny it even if they tried.

The War was something that shaped and changed everyone, but there would always be one part of Remus Lupin that was a Marauder. Even when there was no-one left who knew him by that name, part of him was Moony, and Moony belonged to happiness, to Padfoot, and to youth.

**_A/N - I enjoy Reviews (that's a hint) _**


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